Flu Season
by FanWriterGirl994
Summary: A flu epidemic has been raging in DC for over a month now, and it's about to descend upon FBI Headquarters, Hijinks, fluff, and mayhem ensues
1. Famous Last Words

**A/N: This is going to be more loosely connected snippets than a tight, structured, one chapter flows into the next story, and because of that, the chapters will be quite a bit shorter than my usual chapters are.**

It was early Monday morning, Penelope Garcia was watching the local news as she munched on toast with raspberry jam. It was five-forty-five in the morning, at six o'clock, when the news ended, she would be leaving for work. She ate in silence, while her cat, Sergio, sat in his favorite spot on the windowsill in the kitchen. Normally, she would've been chatting away with him about what they were seeing on the news, but this morning she felt an odd soreness in her throat whenever she tried to talk. It was as though it had been burned on the inside out, but that couldn't be right, unless…

 _No…no, that is not happening… the team needs me. I don't have time to be sick…_ she thought, turning her attention back to the news.

"In other news, DC is currently in the grips of the worst flu epidemic we've seen in the last fifty years and as the number of new cases per week continues to climb, it's obvious we still haven't seen the peak of this year's flu season. CDC officials warn that this year's strain is extremely contagious and are advising residents displaying symptoms to stay home."

Garcia turned the TV off and sighed, carrying her plate over to the sink. She was surprised to find that there was a tightness in her chest as she did so, it hurt more than she realized to take large amounts of air down her increasingly sore throat, and it made her cough.

She looked up to find Sergio staring at her with his large, yellow-green eyes. His long black tail twitched back and forth ambivalently.

"I know what you're thinking, you little rascal. I'm fine. Probably just allergies or a twenty-four-hour bug, you'll see… there's no way this is the flu…" She said quietly as she stroked his sleek black fur and listened to him purring back at her.

She said the words, but there was a small part of her that didn't believe it. Before she left for work, she took the time to swallow a dose of Dayquil and grab some cough drops, putting one in her mouth and throwing the rest in her purse. No matter what this was, cold, flu, or something else entirely, she wouldn't and couldn't abide it. The team needed her, she had no time to waste by being sent home.

It was a bitterly cold morning in mid-January, the wind could rip right through a person, chilling them to the bone in an instant. As Garcia pulled into the employee parking lot an hour later, she knew that she had to avoid actually being seen by the rest of the team as much as possible. So, she devised a plan in which she would make a beeline for her office and lock the door behind her. It was the only way to keep the fact that she _might_ be coming down with something a secret. She knew exactly what would happen if the others thought she was sick, Emily would make her go home and get Kevin to do her work for her. Not that Kevin was a bad analyst, but he wasn't her.


	2. So Far, So Good

That same morning, Reid was waiting at the train station. The platform was just as crowded as it always was, but all around him he saw people who looked pale and ill. He would inch away from one particularly ill-looking person, only to find himself running into another. All around him, a chorus of coughs and sneezes could be heard above the noise of passing trains. It was enough to make Reid's skin crawl.

The actual train ride was even worse. When he got on, he took a seat in the back, where there was the most room between seats. The person who sat down in the seat nearest to his looked like death warmed over, but Reid knew he couldn't get nearly as far away from this person as he wanted to without seeming rude.

Meanwhile, Rossi arrived at the BAU to find the first floor noticeably quieter and more sparsely populated than usual. There were only about half as many other agents and office workers darting around and heading toward their own units as there normally were. When he got to the elevator there was no one waiting, and when it opened there was only one other person inside. He was surprised to see that it was Monte, the technical analyst from the IRT. It took a minute to recognize him, until Rossi realized why. Monte was uncharacteristically pale, his eyes looked heavy and bloodshot, like he hadn't slept in a few days, and besides a muttered 'good morning' the usually cheerful computer geek didn't say anything.

When Rossi exited the elevator on the sixth floor, he was Emily coming down the hallway.

"Morning Rossi…"

"Morning, Emily, what you trying to beat me here or something?" He asked.

"No, there just wasn't much traffic out." She replied.

"Yeah, I noticed. I noticed the same thing downstairs, it's like half the agents in this building have just disappeared."

"Well, according to the memo I got from the director there have been an unusually high number of agents and support staff calling in sick the last few days. He thinks it's because of the flu epidemic. Speaking of which, I just got off the phone with JJ…" she said.

"Don't tell me…"

"No, everyone at their house is fine, but they've closed the schools to stop it spreading among the students and DC Metro is having the same issue we are with being down quite a few people, so she has to wait for the babysitter to come and watch the boys. She'll be a little late but at least she's coming. We're lucky, so far no one's called in. Speaking of which, Kevin's out sick, so now I get to go tell Garcia that she's pulling double duty."

"Bet she'll love that." Rossi replied.

"Well, at least we don't have an active case, as far as I know anyway. I'll see you later…"

"See ya." Rossi replied with a smile as he and Emily headed off in different directions.

Emily went down the hall to Garcia's office and knocked on the door.

"The lair's open…" She heard Garcia call out from the other side.


	3. Only a Matter of Time

Garcia was busily uploading the last few cases the BAU had worked, into CODIS when Emily came in.

"Morning Garcia." She said.

"Good morning… I'm just logging our last few cases into the national database. We don't have anything new coming in do we? Nothing's come across my desk…" She asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper, which Emily thought was a little strange at first, but not really strange enough to set off any real alarm bells.

"No, I haven't heard anything either. Actually, it's about something else." She said.

"What is it?" Garcia asked.

"I got a call this morning from the chief of the local Major Crimes Unit…" Emily began.

"Wait… that's Kevin's team, if they aren't passing along a case to us then what's this about?"

"Kevin's sick, as in way too sick to be here, so they're wondering if you wouldn't mind, especially since we don't have an active case at the moment, pulling some double duty and helping them out."

"Yeah, yeah I can totally do that." She replied. This whole time she'd been avoiding meeting Emily's eye. She hadn't turned to face her, instead she'd kept her eyes on her work, diligently transferring files. The sooner Emily left, the less likely she was to discover that Garcia wasn't exactly a hundred percent either.

"Garcia, are you alright?"

"Of course, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're being unusually focused, and quiet. Normally you'd have made at least three witty comments by now. What's up?"

"Nothing… I just let myself get behind and now I'm mad at myself…" Garcia lied, not looking at Emily. Though it wouldn't be a total lie and she got sick, if she could manage to get ahead now, even that might not be so bad.

When Reid's train came to a halt and his usual stop, he bolted out the nearest set of doors and immediately doused his hands in hand sanitizer, which, this time of year, he rarely went anywhere without carrying; but he still had to make his way through yet another crowded train station where most of the people around him showed obvious signs of illness.

It was a relief to exit the train station and rejoin the more open street. Since it was January, most people for whom it was at all practical would rather drive than walk, so sidewalks weren't nearly as crowded.

By the time he walked up to the building, JJ had just pulled in.

"Morning Spence…" She replied happily as she walked up.

"Morning…"

"I would've been earlier but they closed all the schools and daycare centers, so I had to come up with a backup plan for the boys. HOw's your morning going?"

"The subway station is like one giant petri-dish." Reid replied as he opened the door for them both, letting JJ in first. As soon as the door closed behind them, he was once again dousing his hands in sanitizer.

"You really hate this time of year don't you?" She asked.

"You have no idea…" He replied as they stepped into the elevator.


	4. Just the beginning

Emily was there to greet them when they got up to the sixth floor.

"Morning guys…" She said when she saw them.

"Morning…" They replied.

"Please tell me we're not missing anyone, I mean, we saw what it was like downstairs, it's a ghost town, it's like half the building is out sick." JJ commented.

Nothing about Emily's expression said that she thought JJ was exaggerating.

JJ and Reid looked at each other, and then back at Emily.

"Actually that's more or less accurate, partly because this thing is spreading like wildfire and partly because some of the advice the CDC is telling the public has turned into direct orders coming down to us from the director. Anyone with any obvious symptoms is supposed to be sent to the infirmary and if they're found to have a fever or their blood tests positive for the virus, they're sent home with fourteen days of mandatory sick leave. The agents and support staff on the main floor deal the most with the public so it makes a lot of snse that they've been hit the hardest but it's probably just a matter of time." she explained.

Reid and JJ stared at her with aghast expressions on their faces.

"So far, no one from our unit has called in sick, but Monte from the IRT was sent to the infirmary fifteen minutes ago, Kevin called in sick and his Unit Chief called me to ask if I could get Garcia to cover for him, I haven't heard from Tara or Luke but neither one of them is here yet either."

Listening to her telling them how severe and how hard the bureau had already been hit, Reid's heart sank as it was looking less and less likely that his record of having gone his entire career with no non case-related sick leave, would remain unbroken. Much to the horror of his inner germaphobe, he was completely surrounded, even here. The only way to stay away from it was to stick with his own team, all of whom seemed to still be perfectly healthy, and stay as far away as humanly possible from almost everyone else as much as possible.

By the time several hours had passed, Garcia couldn't deny the fact that she was sick anymore, she was sweating and freezing. She felt achy and exhausted, her throat burned, her head pounded, and she couldn't breathe through her nose anymore. She'd spent the day in a kind of self-imposed isolation in her office, trying and failing to stay focused on her work. She knew that the only way to keep working, was to try not to let her productivity waver and try not to let the others see her. The instant they did, she'd be sent to the infirmary and then home. So far the rest of her team was just fine, everyone was present and accounted for, and emailing her their reports and paperwork by the hour. Fortunately, there had been no request for the team to take over an active case, so they'd spent the morning focusing on completing leftover paperwork and working on cases they were consulting on. However, that was unlikely to last, a new request could come in at any time, and when it did, with both Kevin and Monte already sick, there would be no one left, at least no one she knew and trusted, to help them with it by doing her job for her. She couldn't afford to let them down. She refused to.


	5. 1 Down 7 to Go

Emily was in her office, completing her own reports for an upcoming congressional oversight meeting. It was one of those rare, boring days, she should have been completely at ease but she wasn't.

She knew that it was highly unlikely that the team would stay insulated from the current situation and that once it started to really affect them, it could cripple the team. She actually had her suspicions that Garcia was hiding something and had a bad feeling about what that might be.

She pushed her chair away from her desk and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. This whole situation was a nightmare. There was no choice, one way or the other, she needed to know if her suspicions about Garcia's strange behavior were right. She stood up and walked to Garcia's office, but she didn't wait for a reply before coming in. The office was dimly lit as usual, Garcia's myriad of small toys, plushies, and framed photos gave it it's lived-in feel. She registered instantly that Garcia had nearly lept out of her chair when the door had opened, as though she hadn't heard Emily knock.

"Emily… wh-what are you doing here?" Garcia asked horsley. "D-did we get a case?"

"No, there's still radio silence on that front."

"So what are you doing here?" she asked. Her voice was quiet and gavally, as though it hurt to talk.

"I just thought we could, you know, hang out for a bit, it's a quiet day… honestly if I have to look at one more sheet of paperwork I think my head's going to explode…" Emily replied as she pulled up a chair and sat down next to Garcia. It was only half a lie.

She attempted a laugh, but this too, seemed to cause her pain. "Oh I hear ya…" she said, that's when she finally turned to look directly at her friend, and as soon as she did, her secret was out.

Emily studied Garcia carefully, her face had a pale, flushed tinge to it, there were beads of sweat on her forehead, even Garcia's heavy makeup couldn't mask the fact that she looked as though she could pass out at any moment, and it was hard to tell but Emily could swear she was shivering slightly.

"Garcia…" Emily began.

"Yeah Em?"

"You're sick aren't you?"

"Wh-what? N-No I'm not, what gave you that idea?" She asked, forcing herself to appear more alert. That was her intention anyway, but as soon as she straightened up, she started coughing again, covering her mouth with one hand and spinning her chair so she faced away from Emily with the other.

"That. Among various other things, like the fact that you've been avoiding us all day, plus you look pale and tired and just generally...not well…"

"I'm fine, I can keep working, I promise. Kevin and Monte are already home sick, if I go home too who would we get to take over? Huh? What? No one? Yeah exactly… I don't wanna let you guys down…" Garcia insisted.

"Garcia. I, admire your dedication, and you know we all appreciate everything you do to keep this team functioning, but you're also our friend, and we love you. Just because you can keep this up, which, to be honest I'm not sure how you're managing that in your condition, that doesn't mean you should. You're no good to anyone if you pass out. It won't be easy but we'll manage, please go home… get yourself to the infirmary and when they check and see that I'm right, you'll be free to go, and we'll see you in two weeks when you feel like yourself again. Ok?"

Garcia sighed heavily. "Ok fine…" She said, standing shakily and picking up her things.

"You want me to walk you down there? Because I will…"

"No thanks Em, I got it… I feel like crap but I'm not quite that bad just yet…"


	6. Who's Next?

By sunset, Prentiss had, had to send Tara home too. This was not looking good, clearly the virus had in fact, infiltrated the BAU and was now spreading throughout the team. It would take all of them down one by one until the entire unit was home sick, shivering feverishly in their beds. Emily knew that there was only one way to stop that from happening, and that was to nip this in the bud before it did anymore damage.

Emily left her office again and walked over the railing above the bullpen. "Hey guys, we need to talk, conference room, two minutes." She ordered.

A moment later, when the other five members of their team who were left standing had taken their seats around the table, Emily stood in front of them near the monitor they used to present new cases. She knew what she had to do, as unpleasant as it was, knowing how they were all likely to take it; uncharacteristically nervous, she gulped.

"Ok guys, we all knew that the current epidemic was pretty bad, and that it was already attacking agents in other divisions who share this building. At first, it looked like we were staying out of its line of fire, but now it's clear that we're not. So far, I've had to send both Garcia and Tara down to the infirmary, and both were sick enough that the medics didn't really have to check, one look at them and they were each sent home. I don't want to do this, especially since we're already a little short handed with Garcia and Tara gone...but… if I don't this thing could take our entire team out of commission. So, is there anyone else who isn't feeling well?" she asked.

JJ, Alvez, Matt, Rossi, and Reid all looked at each other, then at Emily, then back at each other. She watched and waited as each one shook their heads. She looked carefully for microexpressions and minute physical signs of illness that weren't bad enough yet to be overt. Everyone seemed fine, but she had the feeling they weren't going to get that lucky,

"Are we sure? Guys, I know, nobody wants to be sick, or be forced out of here for two unplanned weeks off that you don't want, but if we don't do what we can to put a lid on this thing and stop it from spreading now, it could take down this entire team. You wouldn't be letting the rest of us down by fessing up and going home now if you think you're coming down with it. It's about damage control. So… Matt?"

"I'm fine…"

"JJ?"

"I'm good."

"Alvez?"

"You don't need to worry about me, I don't get sick."

"Spence?"

"I'm fine."

"Rossi?"

"Not a chance. I'm Italian, it knows better."

"Well ok, in that case, let's get back to work. Now, I want to keep in this way, with as few of us gone as possible, which means the rest of us can't let ourselves get rundown, it's six o'clock now, let's get in one more hour and then everybody can head home. Unless we get a case I don't see the point in keeping you guys here super late tonight." She replied.

Emily was glad when everyone else said they were alright, but she couldn't shake the feeling that this mess was far from over. Even though everyone seemed fine and there were no obvious signs to the contrary, both Rossi and Alvez were unusually adamant in their answers, as though they were overcompensating...


	7. The Old Fashioned Way

On her way home, Emily decided to give Garcia a call. She pushed the button on her dashboard that allowed her to sync her car's stereo system to her phone. Then she told it to call Garcia.

Garcia's apartment was dimly lit, only a couple of lamps had been left on, she was sitting on her purple sofa, wrapped up in a blanket, sipping hot chocolate and watching a movie on DVD when she saw her phone light up. She grabbed it and paused her movie.

"Hey, Em…" Garcia said. Her voice was hoarse and quiet but cheerful.

"Hey you, how you feeling?"

"Terrible...physically, and because I couldn't avoid catching this thing and now I've left you guys without an analyst and I feel really awful about that. I'm sorry…"

"No… Penelope, don't worry about it ok? This kind of thing happens to the best of us once in a while. You know one or two of us gets taken out of commission by something like this every year…"

"Not Reid…"

"Yes well, Reid is germaphobe with mild OCD, this time of year he practically bathes in hand sanitizer and pops zinc and vitamin C tablets like candy. At first I thought he was keeping a roll of lifesavers on his desk but nope…"

That made Garcia laugh. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"I don't know… anyway, don't worry about it… this isn't your fault… so, what are you doing to pass the time?"

"Right now Sergio and I are curled up on the couch watching a movie… he was sleeping above my head but now he's curled up on a pillow at the other end… hey...listen…."

"Garcia, we've been over this. You can't come back for two weeks. It's not up for debate and it's not my decision. Just get some rest, and take care of yourself ok?"

"Ok…" Garcia replied.

"Good, see you in two weeks G…" Emily said, then she hung up.

She'd purposely avoided telling Garcia about Tara, knowing that she wasn't the only one, would've just made her feel worse, and Emily knew it.

The next day, Alvez called in sick… now they were down two profilers and one Garcia…

By noon of that day, Rossi felt like his head was in a vice. Like Garcia before him, Rossi stuck to his office, where is was peaceful and relatively quiet, and where the effects of his throbbing headache were more likely to go unnoticed. The pain was centered on his forehead just above his eyes, this made bright lights and loud noises hard to tolerate, and made if difficult to think straight.

He almost jumped out of his seat when Reid came and knocked on the inside of his office door.

"We have a case." Reid told him.

"O-ok… I'll be right there…"

"Hey...you ok?"

"Y-yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I be? So, what have we got?"

"There's a bomb threat on the site of the local homeschool co-op. Homeland security wants a risk assessment."

Rossi nodded and then the two of them made their way to the conference room where Emily, Matt, and JJ were waiting for them.

"Ok, this morning the 'Natural Kids' homeschool co-op in Reston Virginia, received a bomb threat. 'Natural Kids' is a loose organization of families who homeschool their kids mainly because they don't believe in many aspects of modern medicine. One of the things they reject are vaccines. This is the threat our unsub has made…" Emily clicked a button and a printed note appeared on the plasma screen.

"You all have turned your children into an infection that must be stopped. By not following common sense, you have forced my hand. You and your children will pay the price for wreaking such havoc on society at large out of your own stupidity. Today, before the last school bell rings, a rain of fire and rubble will be your recompense."

"So the unsub is a male, probably a germaphobe, and sees unvaccinated children as the root cause of disease…" Matt reasoned.

"Which in this case just isn't true." Reid added. The others stared at him with looks that said they wanted an explanation as to how he could possibly know that for sure.

"The reason this year's flu outbreak has been so bad is because the main strain this year is an H3N2 strain. H3N2 as a subgroup is really tough to vaccinate against effectively, because it mutates faster than other types of flu Virus, which lowers the effectiveness of the vaccines. Also, H3N2 strains are particularly hard on people who are over the age of fifty because humans do develop particularly strong immunity to viruses that their exposed to as children, but H3N2 strains didn't start showing up in humans until the 1960s, which means that people who were already teenagers and young adults at the time didn't grow up with this type of flu virus in their environment." He explained.

"So the rate of people getting their flu shot or not actually has nothing to do with the epidemic." Rossi commented.

"Not in this instance, no." he replied.

"So we're looking for somebody who, despite a clear interest in human disease and prevention, doesn't understand how flu viruses and vaccines work." JJ added.

"The other thing that strikes me is the threat itself, linguistically it's free from any misspellings or grammar mistakes that are typical of hastily written pranks." Reid replied.

"And the unsub is a personal cause bomber, those guys want the public to take them and whatever message they're trying to send seriously." Emily added.

"It's tough to do that if you don't make good on your threat." Matt replied.

"Which means the threat is most likely genuine." Rossi commented.

"Ok, I'll let Homeland know, and we'll start immediately. Unfortunately, the hardest part of this one is going to be finding and narrowing down our suspect pool without Garcia to create the list and widdle it down." Emily told them.

"Guess we'll just have to do this one the old-fashioned way…" Rossi agreed. He Said that like he was trying to sound as though he was looking forward to it, but it was obvious to all of them that he wasn't as enthusiastic about it as he pretended to be.


End file.
